Ella-Louise Tunney died after falling into her parents’ hot tub and suffering an epileptic fit.Source:Facebook

A young businesswoman who drowned in her parents’ hot tub after suffering an epileptic fit was not discovered for three days, an inquest heard today.

Ella-Louise Tunney was preparing the tub for a soak on a hot summer’s day when she slipped in and had a seizure, The Sun reported.

Police hunting for the 26-year-old discovered her floating in the water in her bikini three days after she vanished.

An inquest heard today how frantic relatives had passed the hot tub countless times as they desperately searched for Ella-Louise.

But the lid is believed to have blown shut because of the wind, so the financial expert’s body remained hidden.

Her dad Lee Tunney assumed at first she had gone to sleep in the annex, which she lived in, 54 metres from the main family house in Eton Wick, near Windsor in England, on June 23.

Ella-Louise Tunney died after falling into her parents’ hot tub.Source:Facebook

When she failed to show up the next day, the dad assumed she had gone to watch the World Cup with pals.

But by June 25, the panicked dad began searching a field across the road from his home with the family dog to look for his daughter.

He raised the alarm after speaking with Ella-Louise’s place of work, Alpha FX, who confirmed they hadn’t heard from her.

It was only when police arrived and searched the home and grounds that Ella-Louise was discovered in the hot tub, the court in Berkshire heard.

Mr Tunney told the inquest: “I went out during the day and when I came back there was no sign of anyone in the kitchen, her handbag and phone I think were on the side.

“I naturally assumed Ella was tired and she had gone back down to the annex to sleep it off, which she does quite often. I left it at that because all of her stuff was there.

“On Sunday, I thought it was a bit strange I hadn’t seen Ella, but again sometimes with Ella she might work very hard, go out on Friday, then she might stay in the annex. I thought she was really tired and was having a good lie-in”.

She had suffered with epilepsy since her teenage years.Source:Facebook

The hearing was told how Ella-Louise had painted her nails and was going to relax in the hot tub with a friend, who never showed, when she toppled in.

She had suffered from epilepsy since being a teenager managed to keep it under control with medication.

But in November 2017, she started to suffer black outs — once having to be dragged out of the bath by a colleague on a work trip.

She had been pulling 13-hour days at work with extensive travelling but she had told colleagues she would not let her epilepsy rule her life.

On the day she died, she had text friends saying “chilling in the hot tub”, and “I’m in it now”.

When asked if anyone had looked in the inflatable hot tub, Mr Tunney said nobody had seen anything as a floating cover concealed her body, which was submerged in two to three feet of water.

The financial expert had slipped in to the hot tub where her body was discovered by cops three days later.Source:Facebook

When PC Mohammed Sajad arrived, he found the dad searching the field with his dog.

The cop said: “That changed my whole mentality, what must be going through Mr Tunney’s mind to be going through a field looking for his daughter?

“We were going back through the garden to the main house, when I remembered Mr Tunney mentioned to me the last time he saw her was on the Saturday and she was preparing the hot tub. Something caught my eye in the pool, my first thought was, ‘no, it can’t be’. I stepped away to have a look.”

He explained how Ella-Louise was lying face down under the water, but there was no evidence of third party involvement.

A post mortem examination found that both her lung were hyper-inflated and the cause of death was given as drowning after having an epileptic fit.

Recording an accidental verdict, the coroner said: “I find the hypothesis that she fell into the hot tub after suffering an epileptic fit to be the most realistic one in all these circumstances”.

This story was originally published on The Sun and has been reproduced with permission.